Metrology

Capture real-world quality data for measurement, positioning and inspection, and use actionable information gained by analysing the results to improve manufacturing processes.

The role of metrology within the manufacturing process has long been associated with quality assurance – a post-production inspection of the dimensional measurements of a part against specifications. Results either indicated that the the part was either good to go, or that it was not to standard and needed, at best, reworking, or at worst, to be scrapped completely. Metrology was the necessary evil; quality the barrier to productivity.

Yet quality data provides manufacturers with much greater opportunities than simply checking components. The function of the quality department shouldn’t be to find fault. By analysing quality data to its full potential, the quality department can influence decision-making upstream and downstream. It can help other stakeholders within the manufacturing process to ensure that quality runs throughout the product lifecycle. It can be the architect of quality design, quality production and quality outcomes.

Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence’s metrology hardware captures quality data for measurement, positioning and inspection. It is the key bridge between the real and virtual worlds, bringing real-world data into the digital domain. Our technology is helping manufacturers to pioneer mechanisms for utilising this data more effectively – using it to inform design and engineering processes and provide feedback to the production process. Our measurement-assisted production technology is best-in-class, and we continue to innovate towards more real-time feedback loop applications.

Hexagon has a proud heritage in metrology, delivering accuracy and precision from the quality room to the shop-floor. Our research and development team is committed to developing new measurement hardware across a technology portfolio encompassing hand tools, coordinate measuring machines (CMMs), portable measuring arms, laser trackers and 3D optical scanners, as well as metrology software and statistical process control (SPC) solutions. We are driving quality inspection technology trends: from contact to non-contact; from offline to integrated; from manual to automated. And, by using our metrology hardware and software solutions in parallel with manufacturing information technologies from the wider product lifecycle, we are driving new definitions of metrology and the quality department, and developing processes where quality drives productivity.